Giving in to peer pressure

I have been lucky, this year especially.   As you might know from prior posts, two long time gaming buddies have been coming over for a Friday afternoon game for awhile.  In this covid splattered year, we picked up meeting again, keeping masks on as we play.  

Graciously they have let me pick out what we play, as we esplore Mansions of Madness, AD 1666 and various imagination encounters.

Of course, despite explaining  my hobby plans (as in, I will not start any new periods) I have succumbed to peer pressure:

Yes, it is a box of Cruel Seas rules and boats!

Both Greg and Roger have them, with Roger gathering German and Greg Japanese forces.  Having read PT109 in my youth, and seeing several other WW2 movies with PT boats (as well as watching McHale's Navy)I was partway there anyway!

We haven not played yet, but more to come, certainly!

Progress on Swedish Napoleonics, a whole regiment, a better organized army

 Well, after painting the Elfsborg Regiment, thought I could tie together a few ideas together.

When the silliness started, and how it morphed:

Back in the early '80's, I started a Swedish Napoleonic army because it is in my ethnic background and it would be unique locally.  Then Minifigs suspended 25mm production. So I painted up what units I had, and moved on.  

 Fast forward several decades, I was wrapping up my Quatre Bras Anglo-Dutch  and 'lo and behold' the Perry brothers started up a set of packs for the Swedes, so onto a new -old project.

The Swedes are an 'interesting' army to model, with only a few sources available for uniform info. Like, three major uniform changes from 1800 to 1813, with various regiments not changing for years, or maybe ever. Colonels had more leeway, if they wanted and paid for, light unit and musician differences from the rank and file.  I did the same, some regiments in grey coats, some in dark blue, some in light blue, one in white!

Did I mention they lost Finland to Russia partway through the Napoleonic period? And a good part of their army dissolved? In regards to that  I decided the 1813 campaign would be my focus, collecting towards that O.O.B.

The early, minifig component of the army was originally organized and painted in eight figure battalions (say what you want about the Empire series of rules, a 1:60 figure ratio was good for meglomaniacs!)

Switching to an 18 casting standard for battalions reduced most of my forces to single battalion strength, with some repainting to get from 16 to 18  figures.  Hmm, what to do? Well, buy a couple of orders of Perry packs and start painting.  Now the fun begins...what units to keep, which to start over?

 Did I mention that most of the Army served under Bernadotte in the Army of the North in the Leipzig campaign, but that some units (some of the ones I painted) served with Walmoden in the Hamburg area?

Armed with an 1813 OOB, I found a way to stay sane tracking what to paint and what needs to be ordered next,  Really Useful Boxes to the rescue. Turns out, the Swedes were grouped into multi-regiment brigades, numbered 1 through 5, the first four with The Army of the North, the fifth with Walmoden's Corps.  A really useful  8 liter box can accommodate the figures in each brigade.

 

Ok, not impressive, yet. But note the clever use of pressure sensitive adhesive label to denote what units should be in the box. And index cards on how to paint the absent units as purchased.

Light blue and white coats...must be 5th brigade from Walmoden's Corp.

OK, a lot to paint here.

Next in line here- the Narike regt,

 

Te Elfsborg Regt and Wetmandland Jagers. Sodermanland Regt will complete the box'e units.

August painting...Hanoverians for "Chosen Men."

 

 Initial whine 

 What with a week at Cape Cod, power loss to the storm  in early August and a parade of contractors in to work on the only bathroom in the house, getting anything up on the blog has not happened. 

But the natural light on the front porch has enticed me, and a few troops have been painted.

I got a big block of Swedes started, to include the 1813 version of the Elfsborg Regiment. I plan on a bigger article on the expansion of my Swedish Napoleonic army, the main project this year.

Anyway, lousy shot, but proof of paint. Figures are from the Perry brothers, line advancing, command advancing. All three battalions at 18 figures each.

I went with Swedish Blue as the coat color. Red collar and cuffs, yellow turn backs and plumes.  I will add standards to the unit in the near future. Yes, and add flock to the bases.

Anyway, on to the Hanoverians.

From Front rank. Lovely mix in the firing pack, just what I wanted to supplement the line and light battalions of Best's and Kielmansegge's brigades and duty in my imagination campaign.

Lots of lace, but the relief of the sculpt was very helpful in the painting. I had done blue and yellow facings, thought I would have a unit in green facings. Got to hit the Hanoverian book to pick a unit!

Yes, they will get more flock as well.

 Well, that's August, up to today. Game tomorrow, so maybe painting Saturday.

Is July over already?

Well, it has been hot, and there is a lot of contracting work going on in a small remodel at our house.....

But we did manage a few games, actually varied from week to week.

 One of the weeks was a great bash of the intrepid party of five sleuths taking on a Mansions of Madness scenario from the Paths of the Serpent  supplement. I did the worst of the party, being almost dead and very insane as Mandrake the Magician but my friends and grand-daughters did stellar work and we solved the scenario in time to stop the jungle from overrunning the town of Arkham.

Just half the gameboard is shown in photo!

 

On a week of the old men only we ran a AD1666 scenario called Killer Party.We did run out of time, but we'd played it as big as you could, making the factions at 50 gold pieces in size. In English, each faction could field up to 12 characters. The courtesan did give up her letter, but it was dicey as to whether the King's Musketeers would be able to hold onto the packet as the Poles were all up in their face.

 

Board at game end.  

Finally, last Friday was some work on the map campaign, it spawned an idea for a short mini tactical problem. More on that after a brief two week hiatus due to beach time and more fun with contractors.

Swiching comment approval back on

Sorry for the inconvenience, but there was a disgusting comment, obviously not from anyone who would actually read this blog.  No one needs such garbage.

Better stuff soon!

Great guns!

Couldn't resist.    I thought I was all done with Russian infantry and artillery. Then I stumbled upon these heavy duty pieces by Eagle Figures.  One is listed as a 40 pound howitzer, the other a 18 pounder..I purchased them in the battery packs, you can get the guns or crew separately.

They come packaged two in a battery, with crew. Since I desired a few big pieces for sieges,these will fit the bill. Mounting them will be more involved than normal, as they will be be portrayed as in battery positions.

 Crews for the pieces. Nice variety of poses.

  I also picked up a few Swedish sappers. Happy with those as well.

 This was my first order from Eagle, the figures came well packed and flash free.  Photos show the quality, service was excellent.  Ian from Eagle cautioned that shipping could take up to 6 weeks, but I am happy to report it only took three weeks to arrive!

 All this is to support future siege games in our imaginayion campaign. Great fun!

Ad 1666 game, June 15, King's Musketeers vs Order of the Broken Cross

Smaller can be better, poison is not good for you, fear the big guns.

We played a two player scenario as it was just Greg and I om the 19th.  The scenario was 'Get Freddy' or something like that, an attempted sweep up of a thief who has important information.  After the last, big 3 way game...a smaller scenario, fewer figures, but still an exciting prospect. 

Greg used his favorites, the King's Musketeers, included Jean, Natalie and D'Artagnan.  I could not resist trying the 'Order of the Broken Cross' faction, bringing Sepp (leader) Klaus (poison gas thrown potions) and Sister Ada, (who carries whips & chains ) in a change from the ''Defenders of the Crown' I usually take.

The Musketeer faction after Turn 1 moving.

D'Artagnan and a musketeer are on top of the photo, Jean, Natalie and a second musketeer are lower in the board. The white markers indicate possible 'Freddy' locations.

The Broken Cross faction before Turn 1 moves.

Two knechts work their way on the lower alley, Sepp, Ada and Klaus head down the upper alley.

 Sepp gets in a room to search for the thief, card shows the thief not present.

 The game mechanic involves picking a card from the 'event' deck and checking card value against a chart. The first test, very hard to get a success.

D'Artagnan  gets ready for the second room check. 

Natalie is at the door for the third check.

Jean covers the lower alley.

 

A knechte, the commoner type from the Broken Cross faction, advances and gives Jean two wounds from a crossbow hit.

Jean Fires back, cripples the assailing knecht. The second knecht moves up. The two knechts advance to take Jean under fire.

One knecht leaves the board due to a morale check failure, Sister Ada moves forward in the upper alley.

Natalie swoops into the room , finds the thief.  Jean does a 'quick reload' off camera.

Finding the thief is  the easy part of the instruction. Now the thief must be convinced to 'come along' with one faction or another.  This is accomplished near the end of a turn with a test based on character abilities; or not. No longer needed, the other counters are removed.

Here began a fierce encounter between Sister Ada and Klaus versus D'Artagnan. A thrown potion, signified by the purple counter, knocked down the young Musketeer. His clean living and the inability of Sister Ada to inflict much damage occurred over two rounds of melee. Such was the main reason that Natalie, trying fervently to convince the thief to come with the French finally succeeded on the third turn of trying!.

Meanwhile, the night was split by another great noise as Jean shot the second knecht , using his cavalry pistol to cripple his foe.

 While the melee and talking go on.  

And on. And then D'Artagnan stood up!

I am sure the prone figure rules need to be reread, although, it was D'Artagnan after all!  Once the second knecht was out of the game...the final wounds delivered by the musketeer backing Jean up....and the thief firmly in tow by little Natalie, we called the game. The King's Musketeers could get the thief off board with at least a turn to spare, D'Artagan and two musketeers would hold off the other faction.

Where everyone is when we called it.  With D'Artagnan vertical,